INTERVIEW WITH LUCIE ORAVČÍKOVÁ: VOYO WITH ADS? NOT THIS YEAR.

Lucie Oravčíková has been in charge of Voyo and Nova's other digital activities since 2018 and was the closest collaborator of Daniel Grunt, who is now her "double" boss: in addition to being CEO of all of Nova, she also retains her position as head of digital services for the CME group, which, in addition to Nova, includes TV groups in five other Eastern and Central European countries.

In January it was a year since you replaced Daniel Grunt as head of Nova's digital activities. Is it an advantage or disadvantage to take over from the man who is now your direct superior?

I never thought of it that way, but I think it's more of an advantage. Among other things, because I still have the same boss. We've worked quite closely together for the past two years since he rejoined Nova. So I'm not new to him and we didn't have to go through that phase where the new director is finding out who can do what and what they think. We have worked together for quite a long time and on most strategic issues our views coincide, which is also an advantage in these days when speed of decision-making is important.

When you announced these personnel changes last year, Daniel Grunt was leaving his position as head of digital services not only at Nova but also throughout CME, and you were taking over activities only in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Recently, Vladimír Mužík, who is in charge of digital at CME, has returned to CME, so has that been resolved? And who led CME's digital activities in the interim?

It wasn't exactly like that. Dan never left his position as CME's head of digital, he basically stayed on to become CEO of the Nova Group. So he's still coordinating the other countries, especially as far as Voyo is concerned. So if he was sitting on two chairs before, one was the head of digital activities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the other was the head of digital activities in the whole CME, he left only one chair. For Vladimir Mužík, it is not purely about digital services, but digital transformation and also news, which is logical given his background.

Let's get to some numbers. CME recently announced that Voyo has reached one million subscribers in all six markets where it operates. You have set the same benchmark for the Czech and Slovak markets by the end of 2025. But now you're talking about the end of 2026. Why the one-year delay, when in all your interviews you say you're over schedule with Voyo?

We are definitely over schedule, but what made you think we would push the deadline back? If I remember correctly, Didier Stoessel was coming on board at CME in the fall of 2020 and at that time it was announced that we wanted to have a million subscribers in five years. In the spring of 2021, Daniel Grunt came back to Nova, so maybe in that context they started talking about 2026. For me, that target is still at the turn of 2025 and 2026. I don't think there will be any shift.

You currently have about 700,000 Voyo subscribers in the Czech and Slovak market...

In the autumn of 2023 we crossed the 650 thousand mark and we are still growing.

... is it possible to say how much of that is in the Czech Republic?

No comment.

I've read speculation that it's half a million.

Our goals and project management are focused on the outcome of Czech-Slovak Voyo.

Okay. Is it realistic for Voyo to overtake Netflix in the Czech-Slovak market in terms of subscribers?

Anything is realistic, the question is when. It is not our ambition at the moment.

But I suspect that Voyo has already beaten Netflix in some of the markets where it operates.

Yes, in Slovenia Voyo is bigger than Netflix. In Slovakia, we have overtaken it in Brand Awareness, so Voyo as a brand is better known than Netflix. However, our strategy is not to overtake Netflix, but to coexist with it. We believe that subscribers are able to comfortably stretch their subscriptions to both services and what we want to differentiate ourselves with is local content.

Now, during the tenth anniversary of Iveta Bartos' tragic death, we're releasing the first Voyo Original to television. The first two seasons of the Iveta miniseries will appear on Nova, while the third season will premiere on Voyo at the same time. Does this mean that Voyo Originals could start appearing more regularly on Nova's main channel, or in linear broadcasting?

Iveta in particular is a very special case. Firstly, it is a commemoration of the anniversary of her death, but also a special gift for our viewers on the occasion of Nova's 30th birthday. Yes, I read in an interview that you should never say never, and that applies here too. Voyo Original is for Voyo subscribers. But it is possible that at some stage some of the titles will make it to the screen after a few years.

When we interviewed Daniel Grunt some time ago, when he was still head of Nova's digital activities, we talked about this, and he distinguished between Voyo Originals like Roubal and, for example, the series Ordinace, which Nova has moved from linear broadcasting to Voyo. In the interview we mentioned, I asked the same question of Silvia Majeska, Nova's program director, whether the episodes of Ordinace that were made only for Voyo will ever be brought back to linear broadcasting. She said she could not rule it out.

I can't rule it out either. But at the moment, only Iveta is really planned to mark Nova's birthday, and there's nothing else in the pipeline for the foreseeable future.

So if Iveta appears in the linear broadcast, will it also be available on Nova.cz in the free archive?

Yes. In the same mode.

On Voyo it is possible to watch some of the paid linear channels, namely Nova Sport 1 and 2, but not Nova Sport 3 and 4, and there are no new stations Nova Sport 5 and 6 with Formula 1. How so?

It's due to Voyo's profile in these two markets. Although Voyo in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are very similar, they differ in content. While Voyo Originals are more targeted at the Czech viewer, in Slovakia we have gone the sports route. It started with the Nike League, the top Slovak football league. With Formula 1 it's a bit of a specific case, because the Slovak viewer wouldn't be able to get to it otherwise. While in the Czech Republic it appears in the offers of some operators, in Slovakia there is no major distribution agreement for Nova Sport 5 and 6 yet.

No one has agreed to your terms. Or is it also due to the fact that your sister service O2 TV does not exist in Slovakia?

It exists there, but it is significantly smaller than in the Czech Republic. At the moment, we simply don't have any agreement with operators in Slovakia, and since the Formula 1 season has successfully started, we decided to solve it this way.

And the moment Nova Sport 5 gets into the offer of a pay-TV operator in Slovakia, will Formula 1 disappear from Voyo?

I can't say at the moment.

The whole interview available here.

Source: televizniweb.cz